National curricula abroad

1 Where it came from

Each of these is written by a government, not a single founder. England's National Curriculum is set by the Department for Education for maintained (state-funded) schools. Australia's is written by a national authority, ACARA, whose Version 9.0 ministers endorsed on 1 April 2022. Canada has no national curriculum at all: each province writes its own. Singapore's Ministry of Education, Finland's National Agency for Education and Japan's education ministry (MEXT) each publish a national framework, and in Finland's case each school provider then writes a local one.

2 The big ideas

• England: key stages. Key stage 1 is ages 5 to 7 (Years 1 and 2), key stage 2 ages 7 to 11 (Years 3 to 6), key stage 3 ages 11 to 14 (Years 7 to 9) and key stage 4 ages 14 to 16 (Years 10 and 11). It is statutory for maintained schools, with a programme of study for each subject and key stage.
• Australia: three dimensions. Eight learning areas (English, Mathematics, Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, The Arts, Technologies, Health and Physical Education, Languages), seven general capabilities such as literacy, numeracy and critical and creative thinking, and cross-curriculum priorities, from Foundation to Year 10.
• Canada: by province. There is no federal department of education; provinces hold that power under the Constitution Act, 1867. British Columbia organizes every subject as what students know, do and understand; Ontario sets its curriculum subject by subject for Grades 1 to 12.
• Singapore: a level for each subject. Primary children study languages, math, science, art, music and social studies, learn a Mother Tongue Language as a second language, and can take some subjects at standard or foundation level. In secondary school, Full Subject-Based Banding lets each student take each subject at the level that fits.
• Finland: a national core, written locally. Basic education is one nine-year school from age 7, after a compulsory pre-primary year at 6. The 2014 core curriculum added multidisciplinary modules, where several teachers work on one topic, and seven transversal competences such as learning to learn.
• Japan: Courses of Study. Broad national standards from kindergarten to upper secondary, revised about every ten years (most recently in 2017 and 2018 for elementary and lower secondary), with a Period for Integrated Studies for cross-subject inquiry.

3 What a lesson looks like

Because each country leaves the day-to-day teaching to schools, here are two typical scenes, as illustrations. In a Year 4 class in England (children aged 8 to 9), the morning starts with times tables, because the curriculum expects tables to 12 × 12 by the end of Year 4 and there is a statutory check that year. Children chant the 7s, then race their own best score on a short mixed sheet. The main math lesson moves on to fractions, then after break the class reads a shared novel and practices the grammar, punctuation and spelling that the Year 6 tests will check. In a Finnish 5th-grade class, the class might spend a few weeks on a multidisciplinary module about the local lake. In biology they collect water samples, in math they graph the temperature readings, in Finnish they write a report, and the teachers of each subject plan the unit together. The subjects stay; the module links them for a while.

4 Reading and math

Every system here teaches reading and math as core subjects, and the tests show it. England's key stage 2 SATs, taken by Year 6 in May, cover reading, mathematics, and grammar, punctuation and spelling. Australia's NAPLAN tests Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 each year in reading, writing, language conventions and numeracy. Singapore's Primary Mathematics books, developed by its Ministry of Education in the early 1980s, are the origin of what Americans call Singapore math. In Japan, almost every elementary math chapter opens with a problem, and the heart of the lesson comes after students have found their own solutions and compare them.

5 The adult's job

For a parent who has moved, the job is mostly translation: work out which year or stage your child belongs in, find the official curriculum for that stage (all of these are published online), and ask the school where your child stands compared with the class. Do not assume the same grade number means the same thing; England's Year 4 is roughly US 3rd grade, and Finland's basic education begins at 7.

6 How progress is checked

Tests differ widely. England has the key stage 2 SATs in Year 6 and GCSEs at 16, graded 9 (highest) to 1, with U for ungraded. Australia has NAPLAN in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. In Singapore, each subject's PSLE result sets each subject's starting level in secondary school, where students can move up later. Finland's national core sets assessment principles and leaves much of the assessing to local schools. Canada's tests are provincial. The research behind this page did not cover Japan's assessment.

7 Strengths and criticisms

8 What the research says

This page compares how countries organize schooling; it does not rank them, and the research behind it did not look at which system gets the best results. What the sources give is the structure, from each government's own pages: England's key stages and tests, Australia's Version 9.0 (endorsed in 2022, with schools implementing from 2023 on their own timelines), Canada's provincial authority, Singapore's 21st Century Competencies framework (core values at the center, then social-emotional skills, then thinking, communication and civic skills), Finland's national and local curricula, and Japan's Courses of Study, whose revisions aim to nurture what MEXT calls a "zest for life". Singapore's Full Subject-Based Banding was piloted in 28 schools from 2020 and reached all secondary schools with the 2024 intake.

9 How to try it

1. Find the official curriculum. Search the education ministry's own site for your country and your child's year, not a tutoring company's summary.
2. Translate the year. Write down your child's age and old grade, then the new year group, and read the math and reading expectations for both. The gaps are what to work on.
3. Check reading and math first. A reading level check and a few grade-level math worksheets from before and after the new placement show quickly where a child is.
4. Ask the school three questions. Which year will my child join, which tests are coming this year, and what do most children here already know that mine might not?
5. Borrow one idea. Try a Finnish-style week on one topic across subjects, or a Singapore-style rule that each subject moves at its own level.

10 Using Peabody with it

• Reading level finderWords per minute and accuracy from a short read-aloud, a quick way to see where a newly arrived child reads.
• Math worksheets by gradeTopic practice by US grade with answer keys; remember England's Year N is about US grade N minus one.
• Math on PeabodyFree math practice a child can do at their own level, whatever the new school's year labels.
• Peabody libraryFree books by reading level, in American English, for keeping reading going through a move.

Peabody is free and has no ads. Pages on peabody.kids are for children; pages here are for the adults teaching them.

11 Programs that follow it

Programs and materials often named with this approach: National Curriculum in England, Australian Curriculum Version 9.0, British Columbia curriculum, Ontario curriculum, Singapore MOE primary and secondary curriculum, Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education, Japan's Courses of Study.